ENG 102: Writing Through Literature

T 8:00-9:00am, Th 8:00-10:15am, E265

Professor Jay Polish

https://tinyurl.com/naressmsmarvel

Assignment # 3 — Narrative Essay on Ms. Marvel

For your third assignment, you will craft a narrative essay — in other words, a nonfiction story — that demonstrates your close reading and analysis of Ms. Marvel: Volume 1. Included in your narrative essay should be a close reading of one scene (or several related scenes) from Ms. Marvel. This close reading should demonstrate not only an understanding of what happens in the text: it should probe deeply into the text’s form (for example: how do the images and the fonts interact with the words that are written to create meaning?), its implications, and its nuances.

You will present this analysis in the form of a personalized (please do use “I” statements!), narrative essay. We will talk more about narrative essays in class, but for now, the Purdue OWL site has some good, concise information on the form: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/04/

Thursday, May 24th — Please post to the blog and bring a hard copy of your fan fic rough draft (you will be peer reviewing them with your classmates). Include not only your fan fic draft, but also please answer each of the following: What three things do you want to ask your peers about your work? What three things are your favorite about your fan fic? What three things are you unsure of?

Tuesday, May 29th —Leave comments for two of your classmates on their blog post draft: in these comments, please address the questions your classmates included about what they want to ask their peers, as well as addressing three things your peers are unsure of.

Thursday, May 31 — In addition to the final draft of your narrative essay, please also post your reflective artist’s statement. This statement must include thorough, thoughtful answers to the following questions:

Throughout this project, what did you learn? What you didn’t learn? How you can use what you learned in future classes or life experiences? Why did you choose the assignment format that you did and how do you think this helped you analyze the comic? How do you think you could have pushed your analysis even further? What rhetorical choices did you make in your analysis and how did these choices advance your analysis? How did the process of peer review push your analysis forward? If it didn’t, why not? What fresh rhetorical insights might you bring from this assignment into future classes or life experiences?

Assignment # 2 Guidelines

ENG 102: Writing Through Literature

T 8:00-9:00am, Th 8:00-10:15am, E265

Professor Jay Polish

Assignment # 2 — Research Essay Analyzing Anon(ymous)

https://tinyurl.com/anonpaper

We do research every day: when we hear a snippet of a new song by our favorite artist, we look it up; when we watch a TV show and recognize an actress but can’t tell from where, we google their character to figure out where we know them from; when we need to go somewhere we haven’t gone before, we google maps our way there (yeah, I used it as a verb).

Research — in its many forms — allows us to answer questions (and find new questions!) that itch, questions that ache, questions that we can’t quite get our minds around. As we read Anon(ymous), the play surely inspired a lot of questions in us. Some of these questions are going to be ripe for research: together, we will generate our own research questions that will guide our investigations. You will use your research to help you write a deep analysis of Anon(ymous) and the exigent issues it evokes. You will need to cite (in MLA format, which we will discuss in class) at least three sources (aside from Anon(ymous)), one of which must be a scholarly article published in an academic journal. Your essay must be at least 750 words long (5 pages double spaced).

Due Dates:

Tuesday, May 1st — Rough draft for Assignment 2 posted to the blog before class. Try to have as many of your thoughts/analysis expressed in your draft as possible. Include with your draft at least 5 specific questions that you would like your peer reviewer to answer, and cite at least 2 sources (aside from Anon(ymous)). Include your works cited list.

Thursday, May 3rd —  Post your peer review commentary and answers as a comment to two of your classmates’ Rough Draft posts before class.

Tuesday, May 8th — Post your most recent, edited and revised project to the blog before class. In addition, please include your 600 word reflective artist’s statement regarding what you learned, what you didn’t learn, how you can use what you learned in the future, the kind of research you did and how you think this helped you analyze the play, and how you think you could have pushed your analysis even further. What rhetorical choices did you make in your research paper and how did these choices advance your analysis? How did the process of peer review push your analysis forward? If it didn’t, why not? How can you and your partners conduct your peer reviews differently next time? What fresh rhetorical insights might you bring from this assignment into future assignments?

Assignment # 1: Fan Fiction/Poetry Analysis

ENG 102: Writing Through Literature

T 8:00-9:00am, Th 8:00-10:15am, E265

Professor Jay Polish

https://tinyurl.com/fanficasgmt

Assignment # 1 — Fan Fiction/Poetry Analysis

So far this term, we have explored spoken word poems and experimented with creating some of our own. We have read, too, about another genre of literature: fan fiction. We’ve read and discussed how fan fiction can be a profound, creative, and insightful way to analyse literature, television, movies, etc. For this assignment, we are going to create a work of fan fiction that expands on the experiences of the narrator in Nikki Giovanni’s “Poem for a Lady Whose Voice I Like.” In other words: how can you flesh out the story told in Giovanni’s poem? Do you want to write a story about what the “she” in the poem is thinking, or her backstory? Do you want to write a story about why the “he” in the poem is saying what he’s saying, or about his past relationships? Do you want to write a story about their relationship history? Have they dated? Were they childhood best friends? Did they just meet? Where are they when this conversation takes place? Why are they both there? Exploring any of these questions — or some of your own — is fair game. The only criteria is that you write a short story (3-4 pages double-spaced) — a piece of fan fiction — that expands on Nikki Giovanni’s poem somehow.

Due Dates:

Tuesday, March 27th — Please post to the blog and bring a hard copy of your fan fic rough draft (you will be peer reviewing them with your classmates). Include not only your fan fic draft, but also please answer each of the following: What three things do you want to ask your peers about your work? What three things are your favorite about your fan fic? What three things are you unsure of?

Thursday, March 29th —Leave comments for two of your classmates on their blog post draft: in these comments, please address the questions your classmates included about what they want to ask their peers, as well as addressing three things your peers are unsure of.

Tuesday, April 10th — NOTE: We do not meet on this day, but please post your final draft and reflection on the blog. In addition to the final draft of your fic, please write and post a brief reflective artists’ statement that addresses each of the following questions: What did you learn writing this fan fic? What you didn’t learn? How you can use what you learned in the future? Did writing a fan fic (as opposed to an essay) help you understand the place of fiction as analysis? If yes, how? If no, why not? How you think you could have pushed your writing even further? What rhetorical choices did you make in your fic, and how did these choices advance the depth of your work? How did the process of peer review push your analysis forward? If it didn’t, why not? How can you and your partners conduct your peer reviews differently next time? What fresh rhetorical insights might you bring from this assignment into future assignments?

Class Roadmap

This syllabus draft is your guide — your roadmap — to how our class will go this term. If you have questions about class logistics, this is the first document you should check. However, because I want you to contribute heavily to how our class operates and how we work together, this syllabus is also a draft, a living document: it will change throughout the term according to your needs and wants and suggestions.

You all have access to commenting directly on this document through google docs at the link below and I encourage you to do so throughout the term when you have suggestions, questions, edits, or insights.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yCaZ4xUCt8A4YksHDNMZ14_4ez7-E7pkA5hYU6z09tM/edit?usp=sharing 

If and when substantial you (or I) make substantial changes to this document, I’ll let you know in class and the updates will be posted on this page.